How to Replace Legacy Bottlenecks Without Waiting for IT: Lessons from DMG MORI

Legacy systems often split quality from production, trap knowledge in static documents, and force teams to wait on IT for every change. They weren't built for the speed of modern manufacturing, they are holding your productivity hostage.

DMG MORI found a different path. Their flagship Iga Campus in Japan exploded from 41 applications in 2021 to over 1,000 custom digital stations today. At Operations Calling, Kentaro Blumenstengel, Executive Officer at DMG MORI, shared the blueprint for this success: empowering the people who know the work to build the tools they need.

These weren't massive IT projects; they were focused, composable tools built and managed by Operational Technology (OT) teams. The transformation delivered staggering results: a 75% reduction in quality escapes after installation, tool management tasks slashed from 10 minutes to 30 seconds, and the total elimination of paper from quality operations.

In this blog, you’ll learn how to apply DMG MORI’s lessons to your own shop floor.

Manufacturers today often operate with fragmented systems that don't talk to each other. Quality data lives in one place, production in another. Critical knowledge gets trapped in paper binders and the heads of experienced operators. When those operators leave, the knowledge goes with them. Quality issues slip through. Simple tasks take minutes instead of seconds. Decisions drag because information isn't where it needs to be.

The IT bottleneck makes it worse. Engineers submit requests and wait for weeks, sometimes months. Corporate IT juggles competing priorities: ERP upgrades, security patches, enterprise-wide projects. Even when IT delivers, there's often a disconnect. What gets built isn't quite what was needed. Tools arrive late, don't fit the workflow, and people go back to paper.

1) Train Your Team to Build

The fastest way to break free from IT bottlenecks is to train your own factory team to build digital solutions. This means giving OT engineers, the people who understand the equipment and processes, the skills to create simple applications that solve real problems on the shop floor.

What this training should cover - Focus on practical skills: app design basics, data capture, workflow logic, and how to connect to existing systems. The goal isn't to turn engineers into professional developers instead It is to give them enough capability to digitize a paper process, build a quality check, or create a work instruction without submitting an IT ticket. Training should be hands-on, focused on real use cases, and designed to get people building quickly.

Bottom-up beats top-down - When the people closest to the work build the tools, everything changes. They understand the friction points, the workarounds, and what actually needs to happen on the floor. There's no translation gap, no waiting for requirements gathering, and no disconnect between what gets built and what's actually needed. Tools can evolve at the speed of the work, not the speed of an IT roadmap. Engineers own the solutions, so they iterate and improve them continuously.

2) Replace Static Documents with Real-Time Execution

A living system isn't just a digital version of a paper document. It's a tool that updates in real time, captures what's actually happening, and connects to other systems. Static documents tell you what to do. Living systems show you what's happening right now and guide decisions based on current data, not yesterday's instructions.

Turn process documents into connected digital tools - Take your master process documents like Bills of Materials, work instructions, SOPs – and transform them from static references into active systems. Instead of binders that sit on shelves or printouts that operators carry around, make them accessible through digital apps at the point of work. When a process changes, the update happens everywhere, instantly. No more hunting for the latest version or wondering if you're working from outdated instructions.

Deploy tablet-based apps at the point of work - Put the tools directly in operators' hands. Tablets on the line replace clipboards and paper forms. Apps guide workers through each step, capture data as work happens, and flag issues immediately. There's no transcription, no missing signatures, no gap between doing the work and recording it. Everything needed to execute, like instructions, quality checks, equipment data, lives in one place.

How real-time data capture changes everything - When data gets captured at the moment work happens, you see patterns you couldn't before. You know exactly where quality issues occur, which tasks take longer than expected, and where operators struggle. That visibility drives continuous improvement. Problems that used to hide in paper trails surface immediately, so you can fix issues before they become defects or delays.

3) Start with High-Impact, Low-Risk Wins

Pick use cases that show results fast - Look for tasks that are frequent, frustrating, and low-risk. Tool management, changeovers, quality logbooks, material receiving — work that happens daily and creates friction. These prove value in days or weeks, not months.

Example: Tool management from 10 minutes to 30 seconds - Operators used to spend 10 minutes searching for tools and logging usage in spreadsheets. With a tablet app and barcode scanner, the same task takes 30 seconds. The tool is scanned, the operator is logged, and data flows automatically. Small change, immediate impact.

How small wins build momentum - Quick wins prove the concept and build confidence. When operators see real improvements, they start asking what else can be fixed. When leadership sees measurable results like time saved, errors reduced, they fund the next phase. One digitized workflow leads to five, then fifty.

Work toward eliminating paper entirely - Every paper form is a gap in your data and a barrier to real-time visibility. Start with high-impact workflows, prove the model works, then systematically replace paper across operations. When paper disappears, traceability and continuous improvement get easier.

4) From First App to Hundreds Without Starting Over

Build once, deploy everywhere with templates - Once you've proven a workflow works, turn it into a template. A changeover app built for one line can be adapted for ten lines with minimal customization. A quality check designed for one product family can scale across multiple SKUs. Templates let you capture what works and replicate it fast, without rebuilding from scratch every time.

Connect to existing systems, don't replace them - You don't need to rip out your ERP, MES, or quality systems. you can connect to them, pull production orders from SAP, push quality data to your QMS as well as read from equipment sensors. Digital apps act as the interface layer between operators and your existing tech stack, making legacy systems more usable without replacing them.

Enable site-to-site expansion - Once one site proves the model, other sites can adopt the same tools. Regional teams can take core templates, adjust for local needs e.g. language, equipment differences, compliance requirements, and deploy quickly. What took months to build the first time takes weeks the second time.

Foundation for global rollout - As apps multiply and sites come online, you're building a digital backbone that scales with your business. New products, new lines, new facilities – they can all plug into the same system. The architecture grows without breaking because it's composable, not monolithic.

Tulip replaces brittle legacy systems with a flexible, composable architecture built for the shop floor. Engineers and OT teams can turn static documents like SOPs, BOMs, and work instructions into interactive, data-driven apps without writing code. These apps run on tablets at the point of work, guide operators through each step, capture real-time data, and integrate with existing systems like ERP, QMS, and MES. Tulip’s open APIs, edge connectivity, and modular structure make it easy to scale: build once, adapt anywhere, and deploy across lines, products, and sites, without rewriting from scratch. The result is a connected frontline that moves faster, sees more, and improves continuously, no IT bottlenecks required.